Setting your rate
Your preferences page has one dollar field. You pick any figure between $12 and $20 per student hour and it travels with every card you are shown from that moment on. Nobody negotiates it down. Schools see the total for a rotation, not a list of preceptors sorted by price, so a higher figure does not push you to the back of a queue.
You can change the number whenever you like, and a change applies only to rotations you accept afterwards. A card you already accepted keeps the figure it carried on the day you said yes. Raise your rate in June and the student you took in May is still paid on May's number, with no mid-rotation adjustment for anyone to explain.
What a block pays, in dollars
A block is 120 student hours. Multiply 120 by your figure and you have the rotation total. A half-block is 60 hours, so halve it. Three blocks in a calendar year comes to 360 hours, which is where a preceptor taking one student per term usually lands. The list below is the whole calculation, with nothing deducted at either end.
There is no fee to you at any point. NPhours does not charge preceptors to join, to be listed, to be matched, to be paid, or to sit the orientation. Nothing is subtracted for the student's onboarding either. Programs carry the cost of placement, so what the arithmetic says is what reaches your account.
- At $12: $1,440 a block, $4,320 across three blocks.
- At $15: $1,800 a block, $5,400 across three blocks.
- At $18: $2,160 a block, $6,480 across three blocks.
- At $20: $2,400 a block, $7,200 across three blocks.
- A 60-hour half-block pays half the block figure at your rate.
The two deposits, and what releases them
Payment follows the hours in the school's own clinical log, not the hours on your calendar. Half the rotation total is released when you sign the midpoint evaluation. The other half is released when you sign the final. Both arrive by direct deposit into the account you gave at onboarding, and your coordinator tells you the date each was sent.
A rotation that stops early pays for the hours already logged. If a student withdraws at 74 logged hours, you are paid for 74 at your figure, and your coordinator asks the school to close the log so the total is final. Hours nobody logged are not paid, however many days a student sat in your clinic, which is why week four carries a log check.
Tax, and what NPhours reports
This is independent contractor income. NPhours withholds nothing: no federal or state income tax, no Social Security, no Medicare. You receive the gross figure and you owe the tax on it, self-employment tax included, which for many preceptors means quarterly estimated payments. Ask your own preparer what that means for your return before you set money aside.
Each January, NPhours issues a 1099-NEC to every preceptor paid $600 or more in the previous calendar year. Box 1 totals the deposits that cleared inside that year, so a final evaluation signed in early January falls on the next form rather than the last one. Keep your address and taxpayer details current so the form reaches you.
In order
- 01
Name your rate
One dollar field on your preferences page, changeable whenever you want.
- 02
Accept a card
The figure locks to that rotation on acceptance, whatever you do to the field later.
- 03
The student logs hours
The school's log is the record your payment is calculated from.
- 04
Sign the midpoint
Your signature releases half the rotation total by direct deposit.
- 05
Sign the final
The balance goes out, trued up to logged hours if the rotation ended early.
Open your hours, set your figure, and check every deposit against the arithmetic above.
Apply to preceptQuestions
When exactly does the money arrive?
Each half is released when the matching evaluation is signed, and direct deposits usually settle within a few business days. A midpoint signed in week seven pays in week seven or eight. If a school is slow returning its form, your coordinator chases it, because the signature is the trigger.
What happens to my pay if the student drops out?
You are paid at your figure for every hour the log shows on the day the rotation closes, whether that is 20 hours or 110. If the withdrawal follows a signed midpoint, the first half is already yours and the balance is trued up to the logged total. Nothing is clawed back.
Can I raise my rate for the next student?
Yes. Edit the field and the next card you accept carries the new number. Anything already accepted stays where it was. Most preceptors settle on one figure and leave it, revisiting after a term or two once they know how many teaching days a student really costs them.
Do I pay anything to NPhours out of my rate?
No. Preceptors are never charged, and nothing is subtracted from the figures above. The number you set is the number you are paid. If anyone ever asks you for a fee in the name of NPhours, stop and tell your coordinator that day.
How is this income reported to the IRS?
On a 1099-NEC when your deposits for the calendar year reach $600, issued each January for the year before. Below that threshold no form is issued and the income is still reportable. Keep your own note of deposit dates and amounts; it is the quickest way to reconcile the form at filing time.
